The Nanbou Case Files: Hungry Ghost Week
by Wererat
Summary: In Gensokyo's distant future, a human private detective in a town of youkai struggles to make ends meet. An original story based in the world of Touhou.


Foreword

First things first, this is a different sort of Touhou fanfiction that the kind that I have seen before. Primarily because it is set in the distant future of a post-Industrial Revolution Gensokyo. Many of the characters you know will be making only small appearances, will only be mentioned, or won't appear at all due to the problem of mortality. Thus, the majority of this story will be original content.

I have read some people's positions regarding OC, and for the most part I share their sentiments, though I also think it has its merits when handled properly, which I hope to accomplish by creating an entirely new story. If it helps, try to think of this as "Nanbou" instead of "Touhou."

I am eager to read people's reactions to this, as I have been planning on making this into a series of connected stories if I have the time. This is also my first attempt at writing a mystery, so any critique regarding my writing in that field will be appreciated. I have also included some data regarding relevant characters at the end of this chapter, if people are interested.

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The Nanbou Case Files

"Hungry Ghost Week"

Chapter 1

"So let me get this straight, Mr. Makanrisha. You want _me_ to look into your problem of food being stolen from the market? Am I getting this down right?"

I crossed my legs and leveled my gaze at the red-faced chief of the Old City Trade Association, all the while twirling the solid oak cricket bat in the palm of my hand, inspecting the Sanskrit-inscribed paper talismans that had been pasted along the length of it; not those cheapo mass-produced ones you can pick up at the Moriya Branch Shrine for some pocket change and whatever faith you feel like giving at the moment, no these were the real deal handcrafted by an actual honest-to-Buddha priest.

Accept nothing less than perfection when dealing with someone would could snap both your arms off and play your head like a drum before you could blink, that's my motto – or at least it would be if I had one – even if it sets you back on the rent by about a month. Makanrisha shifted his weight impatiently from one barrel-sized foot the other while he waited for my response. I'd made it a point long ago to let my housekeeper know to move the chair typically reserved for clients out of my office whenever an oni showed up at the door. It was one thing to splurge on home defense, it was another thing to replace the furniture every time one of my loincloth wearing neighbors decided to reduce it to firewood with their backsides.

I suppose now would be as good a time as any for a late introduction.

The name's Sei, confidential agent and part-time paranormal investigator. Specialties include locating lost or stolen articles and the occasional exorcism (whenever a newbie from the Moriya place botches one up), and no, I won't follow your spouse around town on the off-chance he or she is being unfaithful. To put it simply, I'm a private detective. Fast, efficient, discreet, and reasonably affordable - it's all written on the sign I nailed to the door of my office, assuming you can read it. The office is a little place in the corner of the market district of Kyuuto, on the bottom floor of the loft where I also happen to live most days.

From what I understand, the place has changed a lot in the past couple of hundred years, ever since the kappa of Youkai Mountain went behind the backs of the Moriya gods and struck a deal to build a geothermal energy power plant, providing the land Gensokyo with the miracle of electricity for the very first time; the only caveat being you had to live underground to reap the benefits of said miracle. People began moving into the subterranean streets of the place that was known as the Former Capital (they really ought to get around to changing the name one of these days). Buildings rose, commerce began, and humans and youkai got along for the most part. Sure, there's the occasional interspecies dispute, but seldom are there any issues with man-eating youkai running loose… at least ones that are made public, anyway.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job or anything, but isn't this the sort of thing you'd normally go to the Board of Merchants and the police about?" I finally said, thinking about the Mizuhashi Clan, who handled most of the patrols around the city streets were well-known for rarely ever accepting bribes. I tapped my cricket bat on the floor to make a point. "At least before coming to a free agent such as myself?"

Questioning a potential client's rationale for coming to me generally wasn't a practice I employed, especially when being behind on rent as I might have mentioned earlier, but then again not all of my clients were oni.

"Of course the cops were the first place I turned to, Miss Sei." Makanrisha grumbled, crossing his arms defiantly. "They didn't find anything suspicious in any of the storehouses that got hit. No locks had been tampered with; no signs of anyone passing through the area or anything like that. And now there's talk about getting some priests from the shrine over to look at it, you know, in case it was the work of spirits. Not serious talk of course, no one wants to get humans involved. At least not the showy kind of involvement the Moriya would bring. I've have it on good faith that you get results, and results are what I need right now."

I frowned, and tried my best not to sound patronizing. "Ghosts aren't exactly known for their food stealing habits, Mr. Makanrisha, no longer having physical bodies requiring food to sustain them. Ah, and speaking of food, here come some refreshments."

A small kimono-clad girl with pale skin, clear crystal blue eyes, and straight black hair styled into a bob cut and decorated with a peony stepped through the door to set a tray with a ceramic teapot and two matching cups on the desk between the oni and I. I saw that there were even several teacakes spread out on a paper doily and smiled. Did I even own doilies? The girl then dutifully picked up the teapot and filled both cups with a serving of tea while Makanrisha watched in puzzlement. Leave it to my housekeeper to leave an impression. She bowed courteously to my guest and left the office as silently and enigmatically as she had arrived.

Don't look at me like that; I didn't kidnap her or anything. She actually came with the place believe it or not. I don't really understand the process which decides what houses get a Zashiki Warashi and which don't, but suffice to say prosperity has nothing to do with it.

The oni grunted and picked up one of the cups to sniff at the contents; if he had been offended from being educated by a human, he was handling it rather well. "I didn't come here for a lecture, Miss Sei, I came here to inquire as to whether or not you would accept the job."

"So I take it the Association will be paying my bill?" I asked, taking a sip of tea.

"Either way, the expenses will be coming from my own pocket." Makanrisha grumbled, emptying his own cup and setting it back down on the tray. "I have looked into your rates, Miss Sei, and they are… fair. Fairer than the fee those thieves at the shrine would be demanding, at any rate."

I suppressed the urge to grin at the less than favorable reputation my infrequent competitors had garnered and instead chose to nod understandingly.

"I'll be paying you half up front, and the rest upon completion of the job," Makanrisha said, reaching into a pocket on his vest and counted out ten thousand yen. "I will also be expecting frequent reports regarding the progress of your investigation, assuming you will be accepting the job of course."

I tapped the end of my bat on the floor a few times, thinking over my options. Getting involved with the oni and the inevitable complications to life that it would bring was never especially high on my list of things to do. But the money was right there in front of me, and I knew the rest would be waiting for me; for all their faults in remodeling people's faces with their fists, oni were incapable of telling a lie.

"I'll look into it." I said, taking the money with my free hand and got up to show Makanrisha to the door. He had to duck his head to avoid gouging the ceiling with his horns as he walked, "Starting with the market district. You'll have that report as soon as I know anything definitive."

"I'm pleased to know that you will be cooperating, Miss Sei," the oni said, bowing stiffly and pulled a white card out of his vest and handed it to me. "If you have any need to contact me, you can find me here during business hours."

"Not a problem," I responded with my own, slightly more pronounced bow. Might as well show a bit of decorum now that he was a paying client, right? "You'll be the first to know as soon as I find something."

"Good, good." Makanrisha nodded, and began walking down the street, which had begun to fill with people on their way to the market. "Keep in touch, Miss Sei. I have nothing but confidence it was not a mistake in coming to you for your assistance."

Ah, what a polite way of saying 'don't make me regret hiring you'. I sighed and turned back into the house.

"So what do you think, Hotaru?"

The doll-like girl suddenly turned up at my side with a cute little frown on her face.

"I think the house is going to smell like cheap sake for the rest of the day, Sei," the Zashiki Warashi said in a delicate voice, like a gentle breeze though an open window, though the annoyance was plain to hear. "And he didn't even touch the scones, you know. I spent a lot of time on them this morning. Well, at least the front door is still in one piece this time."

I tousled the small girl's bobbed hair affectionately as I returned to my office and sunk into my chair, kicked back, and picked up one of the cakes to pop it into my mouth. The flavor of blueberries, butter, and cream rolled over my tongue, sending me to paradise for a fraction of a second before I remembered I had more pressing matters to attend to. "Oh don't you worry about that, I'll be putting these to good use later."

That brought a noticeable smile on to the girl's face, which soon flipped back into a frown. "But why did you tell the oni that it was not a spirit, Sei? You know as well as I do that it's possible."

"Right, about that…" I nodded slowly and sighed. It was true that there were certain types of spiritual beings, such as Preta or Gaki, which were relatively well-known for the voracious appetites that they acquired after death. But then there was the clincher. "You know how the Enma originally tasked the oni with the job of containing evil spirits in Old Hell, right?"

Well, technically the kasha did most of the prison guard work, and when they went on strike as they were known to do when fresh corpses didn't come in on a regular basis, things on the surface tended to get out of hand. But people tended to forget about little details like that.

"Mm-hmm," Hotaru's head bobbed forward a little while she poured more tea into my cup, and then her little mouth formed into an 'oh'. "Um, so basically, by agreeing that it could be the work of ghosts you would have been indirectly accusing the oni that they were not doing their jobs?"

I grinned before taking a sip. "See? I may carry a big stick, but I can speak softly too sometimes."

"You didn't really plan on using that thing, did you?"

"Nope," I said, patting the end of my divine beatstick. "But it doesn't hurt to show your guns when dealing with oni; keeps them from deciding that they can walk all over you - something that can be pretty uncomfortable both literal and figurative."

"Uh-huh."

"By the way, where did you get blueberries?" I asked, picking up a paper napkin from off the tray and wrapped it around one of the scones.

"Old lady Taki from the market gave them to me." Hotaru said, puffing up her chest with pride. "She said it was for being a good girl looking after the house and keeping you out of prison."

"Well that sure was nice of… um, what?"

* * *

The heat of Old Hell was not something humans ever got used to. It was something you could tolerate and grudgingly accept with the blessing of electric fans, but it was not something one could simply adapt to. Stepping out of my front door and into the streets of Kyuuto, dodging an overeager rickshaw driver, I was met with a blast of hot air that was like being hit in the face with a jet of water, only without the wet part. Well, at least not immediately. My dark brown, mostly unkempt hair would soon be dripping wet and plastered over my face, and the light white shirt I put on before leaving the house would soon have stains around the collar and under the arms. I slapped an old felt hat I owned over my head, stuffed a few paper talismans and fried beans into the deep pockets of my loose, baggy pants, and set off towards my first destination.

I could save a lot of unnecessary legwork by first going to the people who had been to the scene of the crime. Or at least one of them, the one whose eyes didn't narrow into cold slits whenever I walked into their line of sight. It took a while, but eventually I found her walking the usual route, dressed in the uniform of the city patrol; light kimono with blue geometric designs along the hemline and a dark gray hakama; hanging from the obi was an emblem which was carved into the shape of the Mizuhashi Clan's sigil, identifying her to any who might be wondering that he was a cop, as though the jitte she was twirling in her hand wouldn't have tipped them off first. On seeing me, she stopped the twirling routine and waved a hand enthusiastically in my direction.

"Well hello there, Uika." I said as I came up to her side and matched her pace. "What a coincidence, running into you out here on a day like this."

Uika Ichikannon laughed melodically, tossing her blue-green hair, which fell in a short ponytail that was held up by a long, rounded hairpin. On careful inspection the hairpin looked very much like the body of a biwa, with those vertical lines etched down the middle, and little bits sticking off the narrow end that could have been tuning pegs. Her eyes, the color of finished wood, gleamed as they looked at me.

"Come on, Sei, I never actually get to see you unless you need something from me." She smiled bitterly. "I'm guessing this is about whoever pinched all that food from the marketplace? Because if it is, we already went over the storehouse with a fine tooth comb and came up with zilch, zippo, nada."

"Can't I just run into a friend for a bit of pleasant conversation without them thinking I've got some ulterior motive?" I asked in a joking voice, pulling a napkin-wrapped scone from the pocket that _wasn't_ loaded with an anti-youkai arsenal.

"Nope!" The green-haired policewoman flashed a smile and eyed the little parcel in my hand, visibly salivating. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Freshly baked, by my very own Hotaru," I said, revealing the blueberry scone and waved it under Uika's nose enticingly. "This doesn't even qualify as a bribe, you know. My housekeeper just happened to bake too many and I just needed to give some away to my dear friends before they go stale."

Uika's stomach made a low grumbling sound before her cheeks took on a rosy color. "You didn't hear that, okay? I _didn't _skip breakfast. Not all of us have their own personal adorable maid."

"Well, when you put it like that…" I made to put the scone back into my pocket, but was intercepted midway by a nimble hand that caught me by the wrist.

"H-hold on, Sei, maybe we can work something out?" she pleaded. "Okay, okay, the place that got hit was a storehouse that was holding offerings for the Yatagarasu Festival. Does that help any? Geez, you're one tough customer holding hostages like that."

I released the scone into Uika's custody and watched her as she bit into the end of it with a blissful look in her eyes. "Yatagarsu Festival?" I asked, feeling as though the phrase was familiar somehow.

"Yeah, yeah, there's a shrine to the three-legged crow down on Chibitengoku Street." Uika said while licking crumbs off of her fingers in a way that she most likely didn't intend to be just a little bit intriguing. "Not many people go there these days, but they've got this festival coming up that brings in some visitors and a bit of faith I guess. Heard it was said that if the Yatagarasu doesn't get its offering, it'll burn all of Old Hell to a crisp with its divine flame! Whaddaya think of that?"

I studied Uika's face for a moment. "Isn't that… kind of bad?" Old Hell was hot enough as it was without the literal power of the sun unleashed upon it.

"It's just a story," Uika shrugged. "I wouldn't really take it that seriously, heck, I don't think anyone has actually _seen_ the Yatagarasu. At least not like the Moriya gods, who like to parade around like it's Kannazuki every month."

"Right…" I wasn't in the habit of dismissing folktales as easily as some people. "So, is there any chance I could look over the storehouse myself? I don't doubt the thoroughness of your fine-tooth combs, but there might be something you overlooked as insignificant that might mean something more to me. Or something like that."

Uika puffed her cheeks up as the way she usually did when she was about to say something to protest, but soon let it go. "Maybe later, Sei. The place is still being watched by officers, just in case the perp comes back for seconds. I don't think they'd take too well to you snooping around, no offense."

"None taken," I raised my hands in a gesture of innocence. "My nose is clean as it was the day I was born."

"Yeah, sure," Uika smirked. "You know, I'm thinking about going for a drink when I'm off duty, do you think you-"

She was cut off when another uniformed officer, a pale-faced boy with wet white and red hair that was pasted back on his neck, who was breathing heavily as though he had run here with the hounds of hell at his heels… not that such a thing wasn't unheard of.

"Uika, we… we got a problem!" He said in between gasping breaths.

"What's up?" Both I and Uika said at the same time - the police woman gave me a disapproving look but said nothing.

"It's Gyokusui… he's up to no good again." The boy glanced at me and threw his hands in the air. "Might as well bring her along, who knows we might be in need of her services."

Gyokusui… I knew that name. It was a name I didn't like. Without asking any questions, I grabbed Uika by the hem of her sleeve and ran as fast as my legs could take me. The Yatagarasu and its missing offerings could wait; some poor soul might already be out of luck.

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Character Reference

**Sei** (清)

Species: Human

Abilities: Capable of finding things that have been lost and forgotten, some knowledge of onmyoudou, competent martial artist

Occupation: Private Detective/Exorcist

Protagonist of the story; runs a private detective agency of some repute out of Old Hell. Due of her innate ability, Tsukumogami tend to gather around her. Where she acquired her knowledge of exorcism is a mystery in itself. She has been known to gamble when no jobs are coming in to pay the rent.

**Hotaru** (夏蝶)

Species: Zashiki Warashi

Abilities: Capable of making herself unseen, skilled cook

Occupation: Housekeeper

Zashiki Warashi attached to Sei's house; works as a housekeeper, cook and occasionally as a sounding board when Sei is working through different theories during a case. Without her, Sei would most likely fall to bad habits.

**Uika Ichikannon** (一観音初歌)

Species: Biwabokuboku

Abilities: Absolute Pitch

Occupation: Police Officer

A youkai policewoman Sei knows well and is her contact within the force; will occasionally let slip information regarding certain cases in exchange for certain favors and gifts, but would _never_ accept a bribe.


End file.
